Marshal of Victory: The Autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov

Who am I to judge the memoirs of one of the greatest Generals of world war 2!The book is exceptional value for money.Zhukov gives clear accounts of the stages of the war.He also opens the readers eyes to the behaviour of western politicians and generals in dealing with the Nazis, and the lack of action allowing the USSR to take the brunt of the war, though he is grateful for the allied effort.The effort the Soviet Union made in fighting and producing the weapons of war was colossal.I feel the book is written with the Soviet sensors in mind, or with a certain amount of denial or from a committed communists perspective.He respects Stalin and mildly touches on his faults.It is a shame there's no mention of the purges of the officer corps, the failure of the campaign against Finland, the brutality suffered by the German civilians, the over running of the Baltic states and harshness of the Red army, but then it would have not gone to print if he had!Overall this is an historical document and a must read and while he is honest and tells no lies.Zhukov is a remarkable character and commander who managed to gain the trust of of the most dangerous paranoid dictator, Stalin.

Interesting account of the events from the point of view of Zhukov, the mandatory raise for Stalin and the Part was obviously required to get it published in the USSR but you soon get to spot the signs and skip that part

too technical

Excellent

good read

Good

If you really want to know who defeated Hitler, it wasn't a bunch of yanks who turned up late to the party. Crammed with fantastic detail and revealing facts that have been kept hidden from ordinary people in the west (e.g. Russia offered 3 different options to the British and French Govts in place of appeasement to prevent Nazi aggression that were all rejected), this book is a wonderful insight into just what it took to overcome one of the most horrific regimes ever known.My only disappointment was the print quality, some early pages are that bad it can be difficult to decipher what is printed...

Really good war book.

OK

I do not buy any books about WWII if the book was written before the USSR caved in. This book was a gift from a person who does not know about my "rule". This book is Soviet propaganda and nothing else. It talks of the patriotic citizens and nothing about the penal units sent out to wade through mine fields. It does not talk about the executions or the desertions. It puts the blame on the Poles the debacle of Warsaw. It talks about all the people who eastern countries who were THRILLED to have Soviet troops in their countries. As in all such books, it enlarges the number of German tanks, guns and troops to make Soviet victories look even more magnificent. It is page after page of lies.Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that the Russians were mostly responsible for the victory of WWII but this book is a waste. Very little mention is made of the western Allies contribution to the war. In fact, he stated that the Soviets were fighting alone against the Germans in 1943. Nothing about North Africa, Sicily or Italy.Don't buy it.

This book was an enjoyable read and a I learned a lot from it. As a slow reader who takes notes and likes to follow the battles and operations on a map while reading, it took me one year and 2 months to finish the 1008 pages and two volumes of this book. But I would do it again. While this book contains many details, such as individual names in large scale battles, that oftentimes seem un-needed, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the war, pre-war, and post-war activities from Zhukov's perspective. I subtracted 1 star to give 4 stars because the hardcover binding did start to fall apart while I was about halfway done (I bet largely because it took me so long to read, I took it so many places, and I read so slow), and secondly because of the many occasions where a whole paragraph will be full of names or small details that don't, in my opinion, add much to the book. But they must have been important to Zhukov to be included. Note that it may be hard to follow some of the book if you are unfamiliar with the eastern front. I didn't know much about the Eastern Front before reading this aside from a higher level overview I learned from Glantz/House's When Titans Clashed. As such, I had to do a good bit of wikipedia'ing while reading to understand many parts.

This new printing of G. Zhukov's Reminiscences and Reflections was made under the direction of Geoffrey Roberts, author of Stalin’s Wars and Stalin’s General. The text is an offset reproduction of the 1985 English translation (many hands) of the official 1974 edition made by Progress Publisher, the official Soviet English language publishing house. The book is 6 ½ ‘by 9 ½ ‘and the typeface of Zhukov’s text is large and clear. The Soviet maps are retained; a few of the more personal photograph are included.Zhukov’s memoir has the strengths and weakness of the system he so well served. The individual fades into the collective in theory but in practice the collective seems to oversees failures and the individual (Zhukov) manages successes. Equally interesting, the relations of Zhukov to the “Boss” (Stalin) develop as a complex counter point to operational events. While Zhukov’s book may not be the whole story, it is a revealing view of the Eastern Front from the Soviet side.Geoffrey Roberts also supplies an introduction that details the development of Zhukov’s book. There was a lengthy period when Zhukov tried to get his memoirs published and then there was an extensive editing process by the Soviet publisher. When the Soviet system disappeared, these cuts became available and the question arises, what is the “real” book? For many reasons, Roberts decided that the final 1985 official Soviet version represents the best text. However, he itemizes the cuts in his introduction and he adds two of Zhukov’s writings that the general wrote for “the desk drawer”. These are presented as appendences: “Briefly about Stalin” and “After the Dearth of Stalin”. The “Briefly” text describes in some detail interactions with Stalin during a time of crises and “After the Death” describes Zhukov’s involvement in the center of the Soviet government when Stalin died.All in all, this is an important book about the Great Patriotic War.

Without realizing it, I ordered an edition printed in India. In many places the text looks like it was printed form Microfilm. In other places there is a displaced faint but visible image of the text on top of the dark image of the text. I am really sorry I wasted money on this edition.

This is an excellent book about the soviet experience during World War II. Perhaps unsurprisingly, In this book, Zhukov comes across as a much more likeable person than the bullying careerist portrayed in other accounts. As the editor of the volume points out, this probably stems from the fact that Zhukov wrote the book after the viscitudes of fate had raised him up and cast him down a few times after his triumphs during the war.There is lots of good information in the book about almost all of the major operations in the war, along with personal anecdotes, insights about personalities, etc. I also found the portions of the book about his upbringing and postwar fate to be very interesting.Finally, at least until the last couple of chapters, the level of propagandizing is fairly minimal--while Zhukov often praises the communist party for its role during the war, most of it seems sincere rather than forced by censors. And zhukov's attitudes toward the western allies and their war efforts seem to be a common russian perspective about these issues, even today.Overall a highly recommended read for those interested in the russian front.

Excellent 2 part volume on WW2 greatest general. Certainly makes the overblown Patton look like the complete pompous ass that he was, bothpersonally and militarily. But read the book and decide for yourselves.

One of the best book about world war II in eastern front, from the best general in the world.

Great book. Happy with everything.

Marshall Zhukov writes in painstaking detail, and I do mean painstaking, how the red army was able to amass large concentrations of men and equipment underneath the German army's collective nose, totally undetected and launch attacks at key moments in the war to defeat them. His writing style can be dry because he details such basics as the weight of fuel and ammunition required for such efforts as well as the difference between effective vs. ineffective artillery barrages. Well-prepared attacks succeed, poorly prepared attacks fail. He gives many examples of both kinds of attacks, hence my title, warfare explained. His purpose is to show that the Russians didn't spring up out of the mud in endless numbers; it just seemed that way to the Germans who were consistently unprepared for them. This is not meant to be a comprehensive book on the eastern front but a rebuttal of sorts to the German generals who had written their own memoirs as well as an opportunity to explain the workings of the Soviet high command. It is good to already be familiar with the basics of the eastern front before reading this book, for that I’d recommend Glantz’s book, ‘When Titan’s Clashed’.Zhukov is open about numerous mistakes made by Russian leadership (including his own) during the war. The parts of the book that I liked the most were when he would do a post mortem analysis of a battle and then reflect on what went wrong and how they could have done better and what general lesson could be learned from the experience. Unfortunately you have to suffer through too many tributes to socialism to get to those moments. He was not self-promoting at all, was never defensive about his errors, and always emphasized collaboration in the war effort.This book does have its dramatic moments, I will comment on my review to provide some more details that I consider noteworthy. I gave the book 4 stars because you can tell there was censorship, I cannot overlook the total lack of mention about the purges and only one passing reference to war time execution of generals. Since this book is about the Red army's command performance, I consider this omission unpardonable so he gets a demerit here. I would think that purges and execution would have a serious effect on officers and I would have been very interested to hear what Marshal Zhukov thought on the matter and how it affected him.

Item isn't "Used". It is completely NEW and arrived on time. Very happy with the purchase. Thank you!

Excellent book

great book fast ship just as described

The editors say this work went to Soviet censors several times. It reads that way. He loved everyone and everyone loves Lenin..To the Dust bin of History. Just read Stalingrad--it's here on Amazon. That was a great book.